I know there is some expectation to him putting up big points, but the reality is he is extremely young still. I see what he did in December and with consistency if he can do that month to month then I am happy. He does have a habit of of getting frustrated when he isn't producing, probably because he is really hard on himself.

For me I look at his points/60. Granted it is slightly skewed because of the great December but even then his pt/60 is similar to Frolik. With that stat he is pretty much in the same ballpark with the likes of Tartar, Haynes, Meier, Rask, Domi, Atkinson, Sheary, and Vessey. A lot of familiar names that show up in fantasy trades with Bennett.

Gotta stay the course. Develop the player into a better NHLer. Re-valuate in several years. Definitely do not sell a 21 year old with upside at a low point (unless they are a cancer in the locker room).

In my opinion, Bennett has never had "Counting Stats" to back-up his good games. It seems like he's often getting picked as the "Hardest Working Flame" and in dismal Flame performances Bennett is sometimes the lone bright spot.

Then again -> he takes brutal penalties and makes bone-head mistakes. But I really do believe his potential is far above what his numbers have been to date. And I also think you win with players like him in the playoffs. Let's get to the post-season and see how he performs with the chips are down!

His ceiling is no longer a 1C -- probably a top six winger or maybe a 2C someday -- but his numbers still favor comparably to a guy like Backlund:

Backlund

1+9 in 23 games (20 year old season)
10+15 in 73 games (21 year old season)
4+7 in 41 games (22 year old season)
8+8 in 32 games (23 year old season)

Bennett

18+18 in 77 games (19 year old season)
13+13 in 81 games (20 year old season)
7+11 in 53 games (21 year old season)

Granted, Backlund was hampered by injuries early on in his career, but he really started taking off around 23/24. Selling low on Bennett, especially when his contract value is still low, would be a mistake IMO. Unlike Ferland who will be an UFA after 2018/19 and is likely due for a huge raise, Bennett will still be under team control after 2018/19 (RFA) and could be re-signed at a much lower figure.

He’s young, he’s shown he can be good/very good player, and needs to work on consistency.

He and Jankowski, before Jankowski’s slide, gave us hope for what could be a huge benefit for us - a 3rd strong tandem.

We do this with every young player we have around here. The lack of patience confuses me. It’s as if we instantly forget player development takes time.

Bennett lost year 1 to an injury, was great in the playoffs.

Bennett’s rookie season, while playing with good players, was strong.

Bennett’s 2nd season, where he centered truly awful linemates, was a struggle. He showed up and was strong in the playoffs again.

Bennett’s 3rd season, this season, was like...15? games in the exact same spot as the year before. Then Jankowski showed up, and Bennett finally got to play with another good player. They’ve had ups and downs, but have shown great potential together.

His development has not been smooth, and it’s not been consistent. Much like the team around him. Gaudreau and Monahan both got extended time with a strong on-ice veteran. Tkachuk is now into his 2nd season of playing with a strong veteran. Bennett got one season, where he was good, playing with a good veteran. He was then moved to the center position, slapped with awful wingers, and struggled mightily. That’s bad player for player development. He and Jankowski show promise, but they could use a good veteran to play with to help bring consistency into their games. Jagr was that, but he’s gone. Treliving needs to help these two out and get them someone to play with, and I think he will. The best path for the organization is to put young players in positions to succeed. Sometimes they nail it (Ferland being stapled to Johnny and Monahan), sometimes they screw up (Year 2 for Bennett).

Patience will pay off, and I’m looking forward to the Flames acquiring someone good to put on the RW of Bennett-Jankowski. Bennett hasn’t been the instant hit we had hopef, but I believe there’s a very good player in there, we’ve seen it at times. Consistency will come.

For as much as we mock Edmonton, we handled Bennett in the same way they’ve mishandled plenty of their prospects. We should course correct, show patience, help his development (and Janko’s) by supporting him with a good RW. Not an absolute anchor (Brouwer), or fringe NHL’ers (like Hathaway). Find a guy who can help, not hinder.

Also, the -1 last night came when he got onto the ice late when coming on to relieve the 4th line who had been getting crushed and had been stuck on the ice. Hardly his fault.

Last edited by ComixZone; 02-07-2018 at 05:12 PM.

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What an unfortunate year to have our franchise's highest ever draft pick. Thank god for getting Tkachuk at 6th.

It pretty much balanced out with the Tkachuk pick, especially when compared to the Oilers.

The consensus was that Bennett was a top pick, but the Oilers were going to take Draisatl because he had NHL size and the Oilers lacked depth at C. Everyone made fun of them. Looks like a fantastic move by the Oilers instead (contract aside).

Next draft, all of CP is clamoring for BT to make a move for Puljujarvi. He fits the profile of everything the Flames need. Potential top line RW, big, good D, strong. Instead we get Tkachuk, and now you won't find a Flames' fan anywhere who would take JP with a do over.

The draft is such a crap shoot outside of a very few ''can't fails''. Yes it sucks Bennett hasn't panned out. But time is on his side. Although recently I seem to be on the ''he's a headed towards bust territory'' train. His flashes are few and far in between now. He loses a ton of board battles, still tries Junior hockey moves, and takes the dumbest penalties. Honestly, his best attribute is his hitting. He's a great hitter. But he wasn't drafted to be a hitter. He was drafted to be a #1 C. Instead he's a very streaky winger who will always be viewed as a disappointment if he doesn't take the next step.

Regardless of how it turns out, I think keeping him was the right decision. He had the potential to be a 1C and it's really hard to get one of those. It was worth more to keep him and hope he develops into that piece because there's no way a team would trade an established 1C or even 1LW for him at any point in his career.

Far too soon to think of trading him. With his prior history, and only being 21, I still hold out hope that he will one day be a part of our core. He seemed to be on a fair trajectory under Hartley, and the odd time shows signs of being the player we expected under Gulutzan.

It's difficult to watch someone with so much potential talent, fail to succeed as anticipated. One can only speculate that rushing him into the NHL, coaching change, changes in position, an inability to click with certain linemates are all factors affecting his lack of progression.

It can be, when you compare two players on different teams, e.g. a bad player's +/- is better on a team playing well, a good player's +/- is worse on a team playing badly. In case of Bennett, comparisons to Tkachuk's and Monahan's +/- ratings are very appropriate and, unfortunately, very unfavourable to Bennett.

I do think that Bennett's chances of turning into anything better than a 3rd liner are remote. One thing that stands out for me in Bennett is his lack of stick-handling finesse. He just doesn't have it. I am very annoyed by his stupid and unnecessary penalties, but that I think comes out of his own frustration with himself. The kid has a great work ethics - he tries to play hard, he cares. Perhaps, he needs to try himself on another team. But then again, what are we gonna get for an unlucky 4th draft pick today? Not much.

__________________"An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think." Georg Hegel, Philosopher

Glen Gulutzan was the worst thing to happen to his career. I expect him to explode under a new coach.

He should be a Flame for a long time. This team is better with him than without, especially come playoff time where he elevates his game with the reduction of soft whistles.

Never understood the " GG is destroying Bennet career" crowd. Ferland, Mony, Backs, Tkachuk, Johnny Hockey seem to be doing fine under GG, so why not Bennett ? It can't all be about who he is playing with.

The stat in the OP stating that half of his offensive zone attempts fails is the biggest thing that stands out to me because you notice it almost every game.

He was brought in to be an offensive player. However, he literally doesn't know what to do when he enters the offensive zone as a winger. He'll either pull back and lose it, or try to dangle and lose it. The 50% success rate is probably from dumping the puck.

I'm not sure if it's a confidence or a skill thing at this point, but jesus, the kid has not been able to adapt to NHL level defense.

Never understood the " GG is destroying Bennet career" crowd. Ferland, Mony, Backs, Tkachuk, Johnny Hockey seem to be doing fine under GG, so why not Bennett ? It can't all be about who he is playing with.

Ferly, Mony, Backs, Johnny - they all get to play with good forwards. Consistently.

Bennett, prior to Jankowski’s arrival, has played with nothing but riff raff.

Circumstance matters, hugely. If “ It can't all be about who he is playing with” isn’t a massively huge part of it, I’d be shocked. It also makes you wonder why we see other coaches shift lines throughout the year, but Calgary has left their top 6 static all year while the bottom 6 has struggled HUGELY. Why not try and spread the wealth and see if a change in circumstance doesn’t help?

Now that he’s lucky enough to get to play with Jankowski and only one outright awful linemate, Brouwer. Unfortunately for both Jankowski and Bennett, Brouwer has proven to be so toxic on a line that he can render Gaudreau and Monahan useless - so what hope does that leave Sam and Mark? We’ve seen that duo (Sam and Mark) play some vey effective hockey with Jagr and Hathaway on their RW. I hope we get a chance to see them play with someone even better than them soon.

I’m not putting this all on GG, as it is more of a Tree issue than a GG issue. The fact that GG does play Brouwer as much as he does is a pretty big red flag though.